Funds raised to date £41,277.22
Yawar’s Heart & Soul is a UK registered charity. No: 1202196
Let’s make a difference together.
Our Story
On the 14th of April 2021 Yawar’s life was suddenly and very sadly cut short whilst walking in our local park with myself, his mother. Our son, at the tender age of 22 years was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (an enlarged heart) five months prior to this date. The cause of this, for an otherwise extremely healthy young man is still unknown. On the afternoon of the 14th, Yawar was due to attend an appointment at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge along with myself and his father. Yawar’s consultants were going to have a discussion with us about having an implantable defibrillator fitted. Had this operation gone ahead, Yawar may still have been with us today.
The function of a defibrillator is to give a high energy electric shock to the heart of an individual who is in cardiac arrest (heart suddenly stops), to start it again resulting in saving their life.
When a parent loses a child and finds themself at the foot of a mammoth mountain of grief, they have a couple of choices – either they submerge themself into this grief and become at one with it or try to find new meaning and purpose within themself and begin salvaging something positive from it. For me, as Yawar’s mother, the latter was my only choice, the ounly way I felt that I could move forward. With the support and help of my family and friends, for which I am truly truly blessed and forever grateful, I started thinking about creating this charity, to allow us to help others.
Goal
The purpose of this charity is to raise money for children and young adults who may benefit from receiving an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator. This may improve an individual’s longevity and/or quality of life. Our plan is to offer this aid to individuals in Pakistan, our country of origin. The price of one ICD is approximately between £800 and £1000.
We are providing AEDs (Automated External Defibrillator) out in the community, these are priced at approximately £1,300 per unit. Additionally, we are providing First Aid boxes.
Since beginning this charity, we have been offered an exciting opportunity to facilitate in the development of a children’s Intensive Care Unit (in Yawar’s name) in an already thriving Specialist Cardiology Hospital in Wazirabad, Pakistan. Currently there is no ICU facility for miles, nearest being a children’s heart hospital in Lahore. Children with heart complications have been known to have been sent all the way to Karachi or even as far as India for their required treatments, this can be fatal in some cases.
In order to set up this ICU, we have been forwarded a list of required equipment for a 5 bed ICU to begin with. We are hoping to purchase the following equipment:
5 fully motorised ICU beds,
5 fully invasive monitors,
2 ventilators,
10 syringe pumps with stands,
1 crash cart
1 defribillator.
With your help and support and the strength of Allah we would like to set this up so that children may begin to receive treatment for their heart conditions. Please give whole heartedly to our cause so that we may begin to change lives of individuals and their families.
Thank you!
Plan of Action
Apart from direct donations to our Yawar’s heart and soul charity, we hope to raise money in the following ways:
- I am a Mental Health First Aid Instructor, delivering Qualsafe and Nuco accredited Level 3 Award Courses in Mental Health First Aid, I am also offering Mental Health workshops in the community. The individuals who attend will benefit in Mental Health Awareness and as a result help others in their new Mental Health First Aider role. For more information please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/mhfa-t4l/home
- I am an ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) Trainer. I am extremely passionate and honoured to be in this line of work as we are losing between 6,000-7,000 individuals to suicide each year in the UK. Therefore, I believe we all have a responsibility and duty of care to save lives. For more information please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/mhfa-t4l/home
- I am a Counsellor/Psychotherapist working mainly in bereavement counselling, supporting women who have experienced child loss.
- To establish a pop-up “The Heart & Soul Café” – this is to encourage individuals to talk about their mental wellbeing, to signpost to professional help if needed and carry out a suicide intervention if required.
- Lastly, please find it in YOUR heart to support the Yawar’s heart and soul charity. Thank you.